Jaime Luria Pinto

Jaime Luria Pinto was born in Liverpool, UK, in a Christian family of mixed British and Indian ancestry. While studying theological and religious studies at the University of Cambridge, Jaime took refuge at Kagyu Samye Ling in Scotland and participated in and organized various interfaith projects. After training as an ESL teacher Jaime has lived in Southern Europe and South Asia, and practiced meditation both in Theravadin Vipassana traditions from Myanmar and in Nyingma and Kagyu lineages of Vajrayana Buddhism. As a writer Jaime contributed to the anthology Transcending: Trans Buddhist Voices, exploring gender from metaphysical and social perspectives. Besides intercultural education and Dharma preservation, Jaime is interested in comparative philosophy, interfaith dialogue and the role of spiritual practice in collective healing.

Tenzin Ghegay Ph.D., was born at Sarding Gyaton in Eastern Tibet. He began his primary education in the Tibetan Children’s Village Schools in India after escaping from Tibet in 1994 

In 2001, he joined the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies and received his Shastri (Bachelor) degree in Tibetan Studies in 2008, and Acharya (Master) degree in Indian & Tibetan Buddhist Philosophy in 2010, Shesha Shastri (Bachelor of Education: B.Ed.) Honors in Tibetan Language & Literature in 2011. He completed his Ph.D. in Tibetan Studies in 2018 from the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies (CIHTS) Sarnath, Varanasi.

Before moving to the US in 2022, he also worked as an Interim Principal and Vice Principal/Dean of Specialized Studies, and Head Librarian of the Dalai Lama Institute for Higher Education, Bangalore, 2020-2022.

Tenzin Ghegay has joined the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley, California, as a Tibetan Language Teacher while also working for the Yeshe De Text Preservation Project. He serves as Chief Research Assistant for the Yeshe De Digital Library.

We are happy to welcome Tenzin back at SINI where he last served as Chief Research Assistant and Coordinator for Kagyur Karchag Project Project from 2018 until 2020.

Guusje Ebbens

Guusje Ebbens has been associated with Tarthang Tulku's Nyingma organization since 1979. She graduated as a textile arts teacher, ran a weaving center and taught courses in weaving and sewing. Her knowledge of setting up a business was the impetus for setting up Lotus Design for the Nyingma Center in Amsterdam, a company that still contributes to Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche's projects.

In 1994 she spent a study year at the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley where she came into contact with the classical Tibetan language for the first time. Returning to the Netherlands, she attended Tibetan language classes given by a monk who worked as a translator for a Geshe in the Netherlands and she attended the Buddhist Master's program of the Maitreya Institute in the Netherlands.

Since 2006 she has been teaching several courses at the Nyingma Center in Amsterdam. From 2010 to 2020 she led the Dutch branch of Dharma Publishing and under her guidance several books of Dharma Publishing were translated into Dutch and published. In 2011 she was asked by Nyingma Centers USA to set up a classical Tibetan language program at the Nyingma Center in Amsterdam. She was able to deepen her own study of the classical Tibetan language by having followed the beginners and advanced courses of Rangjung Yeshe Institute at Kathmandu University. Since 2010 she has been attending the classical Tibetan language translation courses at Rangjung Yeshe.

Tanner McAlister grew up in Yuba City, California, USA. He became interested in Buddhism and Classical Buddhist languages while studying at Utah State University, and pursued this interest through a Master of Theological Studies at the Harvard Divinity School. In addition to teaching English at SINI, Tanner is piloting a course in Classical Tibetan to English translation with the hope of inspiring and enabling SINI’s resident students to take part in the important work of Dharma preservation. Tanner is also exploring how his translation skills can be of service in SINI’s Kagyur Karchag project.

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Juan Garcia

Juan Felipe Garcia-Peña has always been fascinated by learning technologies even as a child growing up in Colombia and attending college in Costa Rica. Through his experiences in university-level teaching, government contracting, and private institutions, he has come to understand the importance of evidence-based, collaborative research in solving problems and reaching goals. He has worked to develop medical software and learning systems, integrating philosophy, language, media tools, engineering, and biopedagogy. He brings to his work with SINI a recognition of education as a vibrant, creative, self-sustaining process, where new ideas for making online learning more effective can be tested and improved. He is excited to be working on Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche’s projects through SINI, where higher education is a never-ending journey.

Founder

Tarthang Tulku

The Sarnath International Nyingma Institute was founded by Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche. Rinpoche was born in Golok, Eastern Tibet, in 1935. He is one of the last surviving Tibetan lamas to receive a comprehensive traditional education in Old Tibet. Rinpoche studied with over forty Tibetan Buddhist masters, including Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, Adzom Gyalse Gyurme Dorje, Zhechen Kongtrul, Bodpa Tulku, and Tarthang Chogtrul, all considered amongst the greatest Buddhist luminaries of the twentieth century. Rinpoche has dedicated his life to the work of preserving, protecting, and distributing the Tibetan Buddhist heritage.

After leaving Tibet in 1958, Tarthang Tulku taught from 1962 to 1968 at Sanskrit University in Varanasi, India, where he also established one of the first printing presses to print sacred Tibetan texts. In 1969, Tarthang Tulku became the first lama of the Nyingma lineage to settle in the United States.  Rinpoche has written over 34 books that have been translated into various Western languages and adopted for class use by universities around the world. Among his many unique accomplishments, Tarthang Tulku is the founder of the Odiyan Buddhist Retreat Center and the Nyingma Monlam Chenmo World Peace Ceremony held annually at Bodh Gaya, India, where, since 1989, he has freely distributed more than six million sacred texts to lamas, monks, and nuns of the Tibetan community. This unprecedented free distribution of Dharma texts has helped to catalyze the development of over 3000 libraries, large and small, throughout the Himalayas.

All his books and projects are efforts to manifest the sacred forms of Kaya, Vaca, Citta, Guna, and Karma—enlightened embodiment, speech, mind, qualities, and actions—for the sake of the entire world. Now in his mid-eighties, Rinpoche continues to preserve and distribute sacred Tibetan texts, to write books for Western audiences, and to energetically direct large, innovative, and inspiring Dharma projects.

As a young tulku, Rinpoche studied intensively with more than forty celebrated masters, traveling widely throughout Eastern Tibet. His root guru was Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, one of the most remarkable Tibetan masters of the twentieth century. In 1958, Tarthang Tulku followed this master on a journey to Sikkim, just escaping the annexation of his country by the Chinese. At the young age of 23, he became a refugee in India.

After a short stay at the Young Lamas Home School in Dalhousie, he was asked by H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche to represent the Nyingma School at Sanskrit University in Varanasi. There he established Dharma Mudranalaya to print Tibetan Buddhist texts. In 1968 he left India for the United States, becoming the first Nyingma lama in America. In 1969, Rinpoche founded the Tibetan Nyingma Meditation Center (TMMC), a California corporation sole, as the nucleus of his activities. He established Padma Ling as the residential headquarters of TNMC, and in 1972-73 founded the Nyingma Institute, where he taught publicly until 1978. During these years, he published the first of his nearly three dozen original books in English. He also founded the Tibetan Aid Project to support Tibetans in exile; Dharma Press and Dharma Publishing, which have now printed and produced hundreds of art reproductions and more than 230 books in Western languages; Nyingma Centers, to guide the growth of four international centers, in Amsterdam, Köln, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with a new center, as of 2020, emerging in Porto Allegre; and Odiyan Retreat Center, a mandala of temples, stupas, and libraries, including Vajra Temple, Cintamani Temple, the Enlightenment Stupa, and Vairocana Garden. Consecrated in 2019, Odiyan’s Dharma Wheel Mandala surrounds the Mandala’s central temple complex with 2,016 18-inch-tall Prayer Wheels, each of which contains the entire Tibetan Buddhist Canon; it is the largest monument of its kind in the world. Ratna Ling Retreat Center, established in 2004 as an adjunct to Odiyan, offers retreats to the general public on topics that encourage the integration of mind and body and emphasize many forms of wellness. A special facility to house and support elder members of the TNMC community is in development.

In 1981, Rinpoche published the Nyingma Edition of the Tibetan Buddhist Canon in 120 atlas-sized volumes, followed by an eight-volume Catalogue and Bibliography. The Yeshe De Text Project, founded in 1983, produced Great Treasures of Ancient Teachings in 641 volumes, and has printed and distributed to the Tibetan community an enormous treasure of sacred books, including six editions of the Kanjur and three of the Tanjur. Its most recent edition, the Yid Bzhin Norbu Kanjur, may be the most comprehensive Kanjur collection ever assembled. In all, more than 10,000 sets of the Kanjur have been offered to the Tibetan Sangha.

A Life Devoted to Dharma Activity

In 1989 Rinpoche founded the Nyingma Monlam Chenmo (World Peace Ceremony) in Bodh Gaya, India, where 8,000-10,000 monastics and lay faithful gather annually. He also provided seed money to the other major schools of Tibetan Buddhism for Kagyu, Sakya, and Gelug Monlams.

Through the Monlam, Rinpoche was able to make extraordinary text offerings to the Sangha. Yeshe De’s recent offerings include collected works of great masters like Jigme Lingpa, Patrul Rinpoche and Lama Mipham. As many as 100 unique volumes of texts can be offered in a given year, with thousands of copies of each volume being provided free of charge to the libraries of Dharma centers throughout the Tibetan diaspora. A participant who received books every year of the Monlam would now have a personal Yeshe De library consisting of more than a thousand volumes. Since 1989, along with more than 5 million sacred books, TNMC has distributed 3.25 million sacred art images and 176,250 prayer wheels to more than 3,300 Dharma centers in India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Tibet. Thousands of bronze reproductions of authentic ancient sacred images created at Odiyan have also been offered to the Sangha. A total of 67,285 copies of the precious 8,000-line Prajnaparamita—including 414 granite plaques engraved in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and English, 100 large hand-sewn victory banners, and six important editions in traditional Tibetan format—have been offered to the Sangha.

Other offerings for Bodh Gaya include eight butterlamp houses; hundreds of prayer wheels; golden lhantsa and Tibetan Prajnaparamita plaques; financial support for the restoration of the Mahabodhi Temple spire; site beautification; fabric banners, hangings, and umbrellas produced at Odiyan; and year-round offerings of butterlamps. In 2002, to support the restoration of Buddhism in the land of its origin, Rinpoche founded the Light of Buddhadharma Foundation International (LBDFI). In 2006, TNMC and LBDFI jointly sponsored and organized the first annual Tipitaka Chanting Ceremony by the Theravadin Sangha in Bodh Gaya—the first gathering of its kind in more than 700 years.

As this annual ceremony continues to be held, additional Tipitaka Chanting Ceremonies are being organized and held around the world, including Berkeley, CA; representatives from 11 countries now participate. LBDFI’s work has been embraced by the Indian government, which enthusiastically supports initiatives like the Dharma Training Wheel, bringing venerable monks on an extended pilgrimage to the Eight Great Holy Places of the Buddha.

TNMC and its mandala organizations have installed seventeen 2½-ton World Peace Bells at holy places throughout Asia, and have supported
renovation projects at numerous sacred sites, including the historic renovation of the Swayambhu Stupa in Nepal. Other major restoration projects include the refounding of the practice center of the great twentieth century renunciate master Khenpo Chokyab, and the restoration of Adzom Gar, the seat of Adzom Drukpa and Rinpoche’s own teacher, Adzom Drukpa’s son and heir A-’gyur Rinpoche.
In 2005, Mangalam Light Foundation was established. Operating through four foundations, with LBDFI being joined by the Ananda, Prajna, and Vajra Light Foundations, Mangalam Light's mission is to revive, preserve, and support the heritage of the Buddhadharma in Tibet. The Tibet-based Light Foundations have given substantial support to many diverse projects, including construction at Tarthang Monastery in Eastern Tibet. Ananda Light Foundation is directed by SINI’s director, Tsering Gellek, and has funded repairs and construction at numerous monasteries and nunneries; it has also built primary schools serving 800 children throughout Eastern Tibet. Vajra Light Foundation has provided ceremony support throughout Central and Eastern Tibet, particularly sponsoring large Monlams at Larung Gar and Yachen Gar, respectively the largest Buddhist monastery in the world and the largest nunnery in Tibet. Prajna Light Foundation has made great efforts to restore Tibetan libraries: more than 1,000 sets of the Kanjur and 10,000 sets of the collected works of the great Nyingma master Longchenpa have been distributed to monasteries throughout Tibet.

In 2009, Rinpoche founded the Mangalam Research Center for Buddhist Languages in Berkeley, CA. Partnering with a distinguished group of international scholars, MRC has received several prestigious grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, enabling it to develop the highly innovative Buddhist Translators’ Workbench data tool for researchers. It also offers many conferences, colloquia and seminars, as well as numerous programs open to the public. In the same period, Rinpoche founded Guna Foundation, a documentary filmmaking unit that has produced three well-received documentaries on Tarthang Tulku’s Dharma activities, including the award-winning film, The Great Transmission (2016).

In 2012, Rinpoche established Dharma College in downtown Berkeley to serve as a site for the exploration of dynamic and synergistic new teachings on the nature of the mind, expressed in recent books like Revelations of Mind, Dimensions of Mind, Keys of Knowledge, and the Lotus Trilogy. 2013 saw the inauguration of Sarnath International Nyingma Institute (SINI) in Sarnath, India, founded by Rinpoche in order to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western modes of knowledge, to foster the study of the earliest period of Tibetan Buddhism (embodied in Khen Lob Cho Sum, the Founders of Tibetan Dharma), and to host the annual Tibet Peace Ceremony. SINI is also home to the ecumenical Kanjur Karchag Project, which gathers Tibetan scholars from all major schools in a deep study of the origins and structure of the Tibetan Kanjur. As the TNMC mandala continues to unfold, the Nyingma Association of Mandala Organizations (NAMO), incorporated in 2012, helps guide and protect the work of its seventeen distinct member organizations.

In 2018, Rinpoche published Caring, an accessible exploration of the power of compassion in healing ourselves and the world around us. New programs based on Caring are being offered throughout the TNMC mandala. As of 2020, online programs for the public on a wide variety of topics are available from the Nyingma Institute, Dharma College, Ratna Ling, Odiyan, and the international centers.

Tsering Palmo Gellek

Tsering Palmo Gellek was appointed by her father Tarthang Rinpoche to build and direct the Sarnath International Nyingma Institute. She believes in the power of small, focused groups to do good, and enjoys when people are working towards their highest potential.

Tsering was born in Berkeley, California in 1973. Raised in a multicultural family and community, her early childhood was spent traveling between the East and the West and enjoying nature in Sonoma County. She completed her bachelor's degree in International Relations at Lewis and Clark College in 1995 and then in 1998 went on to pursue a Masters of Law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Since 2001, Tsering has been engaged in Buddhist cultural preservation work throughout Asia. Her first major projects included the installation of large peace bells at the most significant Buddhist holy sites throughout India and Nepal. For the last fifteen hundred years, every one hundred years, the Swayambhu Stupa, has been renovated. In 2008, Tsering was asked by her father to direct the restoration of the Swayambhu Stupa of Nepal. This two-year major renovation effort was successfully completed and involved the participation of over 70 traditional artists, Nepal's Department of Archaeology, numerous Buddhist priests and their communities, UNESCO, and other consultants. This work was documented in a book published by Dharma Publishing entitled Light of the Valley and a documentary bearing the same name produced by the Guna Foundation. (To watch this award-winning documentary, please visit https://vimeo.com/ondemand/lightofthevalley)

Tsering began work on the Sarnath International Nyingma Institute in 2007 and completed its construction in 2013. Her primary focus now is to strengthen the roots of the Institute, develop programs with universities and other centers of learning around the world, and from harness the power of sharing between the East and the West.

Awakin Interview with Tsering Gellek.

“To live simply, yet heroically, neither discouraged by the magnitude of the world’s suffering, nor disheartened by the seeming aloneness of the work, is to rest joyfully in an open heart, ready to serve the needs of other spontaneously, naturally, effortlessly, and perfectly. The activity of caring is a crowning jewel of what it means to be human.”

Tsering Gellek

Khenpo Choephel

Khenpo Choephel serves as SINI’s beloved principal, although he remains largely on retreat at the Institute throughout the year. Originally from Gyarong Tibet, Khenpo Choephel received his monastic vows in Tibet and his khenpo degree from Kyabje Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche, the spiritual head of the Serta Larun Gar Institute of Tibet in 1988. There he studied the paramitas, logic, vinaya, grammar and higher mind training for many years. After completing his studies, he taught Tibetan grammar and Bodhisattva practices. He came to India in 2011, and joined the Sarnath International Nyingma Institute in 2013.

Khenpo Yeshi

Khenpo Yeshi was born in Zamthang, Tibet. When he was thirteen years old, he joined Zamthang Monastery and became a monk.  He went on retreat, practicing the Kālacakra for three years, then he studied Buddhist philosophy for six years. In 2004, he came to India and went to Drepung Gomang Monastery, where he studied Buddhist philosophy until 2015, earning his Master’s degree (རབ་འབྱམས་པ།).  After that, he went to Jonang Monastery in Pharping, Nepal, where he taught Dharma for a year. Then, for two years, he lived at the Gyuto Monastery in Dharamsala, where he studied the tantras and Tibetan grammar. Khenpo Yeshi now serves as Assistant Principal of the Sarnath International Nyingma Institute.

Khenpo Tsering Nyima

Khenpo Tsering Nyima comes from Tibet, where he studied at Tarthang Monastery for six years. In 2006, he came to Namdroling Monastery in India. He studied there for fourteen years, and in 2017 received the degree of Lopon. After four years of teaching and fulfilling other Dharma responsibilities, he came to SINI. He has been the general manager of the Nyingma Monlam in Bodhgaya since 2019, works with the Kagyur Project, and is the on-site manager for SINI. In April 2023 he was given the title of Khenpo in a ceremony at Namdroling Monastery

Doug Nurnberg

Doug Nurnberg has been a student of Tarthang Rinpoche since 1976, when following the winds of karma, he came to work at the Odiyan Retreat Center. He was a resident worker and student with Rinpoche until 1983. From 1983 to 2004 he was a teacher and coach in Colorado and Arizona, returning to Odiyan periodically for work retreats. In 2004 Rinpoche asked Doug to come to Ratna Ling to act as the Project Manager for the buildout of the Ratna Ling retreat center. In 2011 he came to SINI to help finish the construction on the Sarnath International Nyingma Institute. From 2011, Doug has dedicated about six months a year to look after all SINI construction, maintenance, garden and miscellaneous projects. He has supervised the construction of four World Peace Bells in Bodhgaya, Tashi Ding, Swayambhu, Nepal and Shwedagon, Burma.

Eden Merritt

Eden Merritt completed a BA in Linguistics and Translation in 2013, before going on to teach English in several countries including India, Nepal, and Japan. She joined SINI in January of 2018 as one of the English teachers. In 2019, she completed her DELTA with a specialization in English for Specific Purposes. Her work at the Institute involves designing and teaching the English for Dharma Purposes program.

Franziska Oertle

Franziska Oertle's passion and vocation is to teach Colloquial Tibetan as her small personal contribution to preserve the Tibetan culture and the dharma, trying to fulfill the wish of her main (Tibetan Buddhist) teacher His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. Upon visiting SINI in January 2019, she was deeply inspired by the dedication of Tsering la, all monks and staff, non-human (four-legged) persons, the members of Tarthang Tulku Rinpoche's community and the peace and beauty of the Institute. Teaching Tibetan for foreigners at SINI helps build Bridges of Goodness. In this way, the monks are able to communicate with foreigners in their native tongue as well as English. Franziska is intent on making Tibetan language studies more widely available. For this purpose, she is currently co-developing an online Tibetan language course.
http://franziska.in

Catherine Brown

Catherine Brown first traveled to India and Nepal in 1991 to conduct research for her master’s degree. During that six-month sojourn, she met with scholars throughout the region, and investigated ancient Buddhist and Hindu portrayals of nature in art and literature. On her first visit to SINI in 2015, she felt as though she had found a balm for her soul. She has dreamt of returning to work with the monks ever since. Having found her calling teaching English and supporting educators of non-native English speakers, she returned to India as an English teacher with The American Embassy School in New Delhi. These days Catherine supports SINI's English for Dharma Purposes program from her home in the Pacific Northwest United States. She is gratified to think of the great blessings for the Dharma that will arise from SINI's students!

Andy Francis

Andy Francis grew up in Grinnell, Iowa, USA. At SINI he taught the first formal cohort of English for Dharma Purposes class from 2015 to 2019. Andy took on a variety of responsibilities and projects, including teaching beginning, intermediate and advanced English, leading conversation classes, and starting an English student library. This experience helped him discover his passion for teaching. He is pursuing a Master of Arts degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. In his free time, he enjoys English tutoring, gardening and learning to cook. Andy continues to teach English online to SINI’s monks.

Leila Wilson

Leila Wilson grew up in DeKalb, IL, raised by a Dutch gardener/artist/social worker and an Irish-American chemistry professor/lawyer/inventor. She runs the Writing Center and teaches literature and creative writing courses at the School of the Institute of Chicago. She enjoys relearning half-forgotten languages, going on long walks, gardening in spurts, and reading and writing poems. After admiring the work taking place at SINI for many years, she and her family were able to visit in January of 2020, and she has felt so grateful to continue conversations with monks enrolled in the English for Dharma Purposes program.

Renate Marx

Renate Marx, while born in Germany, moves between countries and worlds. She studied Drama in Education, and earned a Masters in Political Science from Freie Universität Berlin. A passion for interdisciplinary collaboration and experiential learning has fueled her career. For twenty years Renate has been a manager and program developer at the crossroads where education meets civics, intercultural studies, and the arts. After two decades in education, Renate took a sabbatical to participate in the Four Month Human Development retreat at the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley. Since then she has been a full-time volunteer within the Nyingma Mandala in the U.S. and Germany. Since 2015, she is Administrator and an English Language tutor at SINI, where she also coordinates the Four Noble Truths Program.

Briana Blasko

Briana Blasko’s photographic career began in New York where she worked for the New York Times, photographing dance for the Arts and Culture Department. For the past thirteen years, she’s been crisscrossing the Indian sub-continent to document the country’s rich traditions of textiles and dance, and the enchanting play between the two. Her work has culminated in the production of a series of photographic works, including Dance of the Weave and Within Without: The Path of the Yogi. Briana lives between India and San Francisco and is honored to be a part of SINI’s work.

https://www.brianablasko.com/fundraiser

Dr. Pandey

Since 2011, Dr. Pandey has served as the on-call Ayurvedic doctor at SINI. Dr. Pandey takes care of all health-related issues for SINI’s monks, students, and visitors. Although he was never formally trained in Sanskrit, Dr. Pandey was tutored by his father, a great Sanskrit professor at the Sampoornanand Sanskrit University, Varanasi. Supporting SINI’s mission to revitalize Sanskrit Buddhist chanting, Dr. Pandey is now engaged with recording Sanskrit Buddhist texts like the Manjushrinamsangiti, and other prayers and mantras. Every year, since 2016 Dr. Pandey has led the Manjushrinamasanghiti annual program held in Bodh Gaya. 

Alexander von Rospatt

Alexander von Rospatt is Professor for Buddhist and South Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes in the doctrinal history of Indian Buddhism, and in the indigenous Buddhist tradition of the Kathmandu Valley, where he lived and did research for a number of years. He was trained at SOAS (London Univ.) and at Hamburg University. Before joining UC Berkeley in January 2004, he served as assistant professor at the University of Leipzig. He has also taught on visiting appointments at the Universities of Oxford, Vienna, and Munich, and at the Institute for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies at Tokyo.

Kaveri and TJ Singh

Indian-born artists Kaveri and TJ Singh are partners in life and in art, and live and work in Los Angeles. They share an unspoken language that guides their work and their philosophy. Together they share a story and an experience that is the foundation of their practice. Kaveri and TJ have worked with leading interior designers from around the world. Their work can be seen at Historic estates such as the Greer Mansion, the Brody House, and the Dominguez Wilshire restoration for the LA Conservancy. The sense of hybridity in their work, merging both eastern and western traditions, led to one of their most significant projects. This is a Sacred Murals project depicting the life of the Buddha, where Lord Buddha gave his first sermon. The murals fill the main meditation hall of the sacred temple at the Sarnath International Nyingma Institute.

Mary Catherine & Richard Frazier

Mary Catherine grew up in a small town in Southeast Missouri in the USA. She taught full time in the Warrensburg, MO public schools, while earning a Ph.D. in Multicultural Education and Socio-anthropology from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. She taught, with her husband Richard, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone. She has also taught in Saudi Arabia, Singapore and India. She is now engaged as a teacher for English Language Learners at the American Embassy School in India. She is committed to service and volunteerism, and has worked on a variety of projects with children and adults the world over. Mary Catherine is memorable for her warmth, empathy, and enthusiasm. Working with the monastics at SINI is a great privilege for her, and is dear to her heart.

Richard, like his wife Mary Catherine, grew up in rural Missouri. After joining the Peace Corps together, he taught in a small village in Sierra Leone. After their service, Richard began a graduate program in Science Education at the University of Illinois. Over the years, Richard has become an avid observer and student of nature. He is fascinated with how children and adults think and learn. He collaborated to bring hands-on science activities to children in impoverished neighborhoods in Delhi. Richard especially enjoys combining science and service. Bringing science and nature to the monastics at SINI has been most rewarding. He cherishes the opportunity to integrate English and science learning together with his wife. Both he and Mary Catherine are ever grateful to learn about Buddhism and the Dharma. They are always pleased to promote the noble efforts of SINI.

Navneet Raman

Navneet Raman's family has been contributing to the culture and heritage of Varanasi for 100 years. His great grandfather was the first mayor of Varanasi in the beginning of the 20th century. Family members were founding trustees of Banaras Hindu University, Kashi Vidyapeeth, and Central University of Tibetan Studies. Continuing his family legacy, Navneet has been preserving culture and heritage in Varanasi for the last twenty years. He is the founder of Kriti Gallery and Artist Residency, and has been the Convenor of INTACH Varanasi Chapter from 2006-2009. He is the founder of Banaras Cultural Foundation, a not-for-profit organization engaged in cultural exchange and education trips. At SINI, he helps to integrate visitors and students into the world of Varanasi. His love of trees and the environment keep him busy at the Institute. Navneet has helped to dream up beautiful visions of biodiversity at SINI, creating oases of green wherever he goes!